by Christine Stoddard

Created on: June 10, 2009

"How Should I Feel About Fan Mail?"

I grew up in the era of celebrities, where the media scrapes up the most intimate details of famous people's lives and dumps it on a website for all the world to consume. And they do. They opt for cerebral malnutrition every time. My generation learned how to use a computer by age six or seven, so we could easily navigate the Internet for anything-not that many of us cared for anything more intellectually substantial than the latest news on the Backstreet Boys or Spice Girls tour. Our brains function in terms of keywords; if we want the juiciest on Brad Pitt, we know exactly what to type into search engines. Once we find that coveted tidbit, we feed on the bite-sized facts that the press has specifically packaged for us. Sometimes that packaging comes in the form of a news article or audio clip; other times, a video; maybe a satirical poem on rare occasions, when they feel the kitchen staff's skills have become lackluster. At this point in media history, the methods for celeb-stalking are mind-boggingly unlimited. But when I go to the proverbial supermarket, all the choices overwhelm me. Do I want to buy Brittany Spears cereal or munch on Johnny Depp cookies? Do I even want to know what brand panties Lindsay Lohan wears-I mean, "eat Lilo gummies"?

Who exactly qualifies as a celebrity these days, anyway? Anyone with a following? How big does that following have to be? Are the requirements for celebrity status quantifiable? (Evidently society has programmed me to think about everything as if I were about to type it into AskJeeves.com.) I just want to kick the supermarket so hard that it collapses, but then I realize that it's a digital figment. I can't chew the celebrity overload any longer and yet there is no way I can destroy it. Perhaps that's why I've decided to follow Bugs Bunny's advice: "If ya can't beat 'em, join 'em." And, yes, I had to use the Internet to verify that Bugs, not Daffy, said that in one of my beloved Looney Tunes. I am a product of my Facebook-Twitter-MySpace-Google-Digg infused environment.

That is why I have gone the fan-garnering route...sort of. Becoming a very minor celebrity, or a celebrity of any size, was never my original intention.

A few years ago, as an innocent 14-year old, I posted some of my poetry and collages online. I simply wanted a place for my parents, grandma, and friends to look at some of my work. By that point, I had won several art and writing contests, gaining recognition

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